How to Make a Mobile Wallet App

Today, people are going cashless and don’t want to carry cards with themselves. People want to just use smartphones for everything. Companies are launching wallet apps that make it easier for users to store all the cards in a wallet app and use the smartphone to pay at the terminal. Even apple and android have launched their own wallet app for users to save all the cards. People tend to use smartphones more than their wallet for payments. Many banks, payment companies, startups are launching wallet apps. If you have an idea of a mobile wallet app, you have to know several things before start developing it. This blog will help you understand the process you should follow to build a wallet app.

Some Popular Wallet App

Several wallet apps have been launched by big brands, here are three popular wallet apps:

1) Apple Pay:

Apple pay is a wallet app, which enables the users to make a digital payment using an apple device(phone or watch). You don’t need a debit/credit card or physical wallet pay or receive the money. There is no need for contact details and PIN for a transaction as it is a contactless payment app. You can pay at any contactless payment terminal as you do not need a specific apple contactless payment terminal. The app is enabled with Near Field Communication (NFC) that allows the users to pay at the point of sale terminal by a single tap on their device. It is a highly secured app because cloud storage does not save the card details or bank details. To make a secure payment app provides you with the token against the cards. Thus, the retailer and merchant do not have direct access to your card details or bank details.

2) Google Pay:

Google Wallet app, which uses Near Field Communication (NFC) to transfer funds from the sender’s account to the receiver’s account. NFC replaces the use of cards and account details and enables users to pay at the point of sale terminal. Thus helping them to make a secure transaction using the app. The users are provided with the two-way authentication via UPI password, PIN, Fingerprint, when they make a transaction. There is no prescribed limit on the addition of cards to make a transaction. You can add manually by filling the card details or by taking the photos of the cards. When a user-pay using a google wallet app, then it does not provide the retailer or merchant with the card details. Instead, it provides a virtual account to the users to help them to proceed with the transaction.

3) Samsung Pay:

Samsung Pay is a digital payment app acquired by Samsung electronics in 2015. It is not a contactless payment app as it uses the credit/debit card to proceed with the transaction. It is a less popular platform as compare to Google pay and Apple pay. It uses NFC (Near Field Communication) built in your smartphone to make a secure transaction. It has also with MST (Magnetic Stripe Technology) that you will find the latest Samsung smartphone. MST directly interact with the machine and enable you to make a secure payment. It is similar to the card payment method. It is a secure app because the card details and bank details are stored in a secure token. Payment authenticity is maintained with the fingerprint lock or passcode.

Steps to Develop a Successful Wallet App:

1) Research and Analysis

Firstly, when you start the development process of your mobile wallet app you need to conduct a detailed research about the market. You should analyze the existing wallet apps and understand what is missing in them. The analysis will help you understand the current trends and requirements of the users in the market. You should learn from the mistakes in current apps and come up with a solution in your mobile wallet app. The research will help you to identify the challenges, which are to be faced in the development process. You can also identify the right audience for your wallet app. When you have discovered your targeted audience you should conduct a survey based on your mobile wallet app to get feedback. Their feedback will provide you their requirements and needs from a mobile wallet app. When you reach your targeted audience you should try to acquire, convert, and retain them with your mobile wallet app. They will be the initial users of your mobile wallet app.

2) Understand the popular features of wallet apps

If you are developing a mobile wallet app like apple pay, google pay, you should be aware of some common feature, which should be enabled in the wallet apps.

Authentication:

It is an important feature of a mobile wallet app to make sure that your app is not used in fraudulent activity. You need to know your customer (KYC) norms to ensure the authenticity of the users of your wallet app. You can verify with their Address proof, Identification number, bank details, and other details. You can also perform two-way authentication to make sure that the user intends to do the transaction.

Quick Payment Option:

The mobile wallet apps are the fastest and secure method to pay by a single tap on your mobile. You can enable your wallet app with several quick payment options such as Near Field Communication (NFC), QR scanner, GPS tracker, Bluetooth, and other options. NFC allows users to pay to the existing point of sale terminal, the user can tap the phone at the terminal instead of using the credit card. In several parts of the world, merchants keep a QR code at the location and user will scan that with the wallet app to pay the merchant. You can also use GPS to make sure that the payer is at the merchant location. These will consume less time of the user’s and the authenticity is also maintained.

Track the Transaction History:

You need to provide the users with a summary of the transactions performed using your mobile wallet app. Your app should allow them to track their transaction daily, weekly, and monthly basis. These will maintain the faith of the users in your mobile wallet app along with budgeting the expenditure.

3) Provide Secure Payment Gateway

Payment gateways an essential component of a wallet app. It charges the user’s stored cards and transfer the money to the receiver. Numerous payment gateways are available in different countries. Stripe, Braintree, Authorize.net, are examples of some popular gateways in the USA. CCAvenue, E-Billing solution, Direct pay, PayUmoney are very popular gateways in Asia. When you decide on a payment gateway, you should look at their fees structure, features, security integrity, APIs and other factors. Gateways charges fees like transaction fees, monthly fees, the percentage of dollar values and other fees, you want to be very careful while reviewing their fees. You should also review how they store the user’s data like a credit card, bank details, and personal details. You should also make sure that the gateway provides detailed API documentation and integration support for you to integrate.

4) Understand the Regulatory Requirement

Before you start to build your mobile wallet app, you should review the rules and regulations of the payments and banking industry. Every country has its own compliance and you should review it in detail. If you are in the USA, then your app should meet the criteria set by PCI (Payment Card Industry). You need to understand what is PCI compliance and why it is necessary? PCI compliance defines the rules and regulations to secure and protect the user’s data. PCI compliant apps are always more trusted by users since customers know that the bank accounts details and the transactions are secured.

5) Create the Design of the App

The designing is an essential part of the development of a wallet app. Designs will help your wallet app to convey the purpose to its users. You should focus on creating an attractive and engaging user experience to your wallet app. Great design will help you to attract the targeted audience and make them addicted to the app. User Experience plays a significant role in the efficiency of a wallet app since it involves money and security. When you start the design for your wallet app, you should create the wireframes of the app so that you can visualize your app flow, screens and data fields. You can use tools like Balsamiq or Sketch to create wireframes. You should have your friends and team members to look at it and provide feedback. While you are doing the wireframes, you should decide on the logo and color theme for the app. Once you decide on the logo and color theme, you can start converting your wireframes into visual designs. You should hire a professional designer to do the entire design of the app since UIUX (User Interface User Experience) is the key factor in retaining the user base.

6) Develop and Test your App

Developing a wallet app requires skill and experience. You need a team or an app developer who is familiar with the payment gateways and financial transactions. A developer will help you with both the front end as well as back end services. Before you hire a developer several questions will strikes in your mind i.e. How much does it cost to hire a developer, How to find a developer? The answer to the question will be based on factors such as location, experience, skills, platform, and others. You can ask for a quotation from different developers for their pricing, skills, and experience as a developer. There are several online websites which connect you with skilled and established developer around the globe. You can create an account on those sites (Upwork, Clutch, Freelancers..) and get quotes from app development companies and freelancers. Once you decide on a team, you should get in a contract with them. Since you have full design done already, you can have a fixed cost estimate based upon the milestones. A milestone will define what features will be developed for what cost, this helps you in tracking the development progress. While your developers are coding the app, you should ask them to provide you an app build for testing. Make sure you are actively testing the app and providing the feedback.

7) Launch and Support Your App

After your app is fully developed, you should publish them in the App Store and Google Play store. You should create an account with apple, which cost around $99/year and an account with the Google Play Store, which cost around $25/year. Once your app is live in the store, you should closely monitor all the reviews and feedback you get from your customers. As you receive the feedback, you can start planning for an upgrade to cater to your customers better.